Largely a phenomenon of the 80's & early 90's, the megamix seems to be making a comeback recently. Between CBS's Megamix Contest to postings of classic megamixes on YouTube, I've noticed a resurgence of the artform. Back in the pre-digital age, the megamixes that were committed to vinyl (as opposed to homemade ones put out on cassettes and sold out of homeboys' trunks at area swap meets), were usually released through limited, unlicensed pressings or for subscription-based, DJ-only labels. Some of the larger alternative dance bands (Depeche Mode, New Order, Pet Shop Boys, etc.) had several commissioned for club use or for diehard collectors. Nowadays, music doesn't have to be manually cut and pasted from tapes to make megamixes - one can simply use some programs to sample and piece things together, and voila, instant megamix (okay, it's still a time-consuming, but not nearly as cumbersome process).

This prompted me to dig out a few mixes from the archives and rip them for your listening pleasure. Also posted are this year's CBS contest winner as well as the entry from RobotSound cohort, Pollo Loco.

Flim Flam Acid Mix

Dave Clarke Old Skool Cut Up Mix

Cocktail 83 [Il Discotto]

Digital Emotion - Super Mega Mix

Dircsen - Small Time Shot Away (CBS MMC Winner 2008)

Pollo Loco - Prepare to Qualify (CBS MMC 2008)

Since it's clear that I've been stuck in the 20th century for the last couple months, here's an A - Z of 80s videos so that maybe I can purge this inexplicable nostalgia and return to present-day existence. I tried to find live performances or "alternate" versions when available so that you're not stuck watching the same clips that have been in rotation on music video channels for the last 20-30 years.

ABC - Look of Love
Blancmange - Blind Vision
Captain Sensible - Wot
Devo - That's Good
Ēbn-Ōzn - AEIOU Sometimes Y
Falco - Der Kommissar
Go Gos - We Got The Beat
The Human League - Being Boiled
Irene Cara - What A Feeling
The Jesus & Mary Chain - Just Like Honey & Inside Me
Kraftwerk - Heimcomputer
Lisa Lisa & Cult Jam - Head To Toe
Midnight Star - Operator
New Order - Love Vigilantes
OMD - Electricity
Pete Burns - You Spin Me Round
Stacey Q - Two Of Hearts
Rockwell - Somebody's Watching Me
Sparks - Cool Places
Tones On Tail - Go!
Ultravox - Sleepwalk
Visage - The Anvil
Kim Wilde - Kids In America
Trans X - Living On Video
Yazoo - Don't Go
ZZ Top - Gimme All Your Lovin'

Today's RobotMix™ comes to us courtesy of Mark Archer, of Nexus 21/Altern 8 fame. Mark kicks it wayyy Old Skool here with Thee urban jams of the early-to-mid 80s. Let me be the first to witness that the robots who krafted these songs had some serious soul indeed.

Listening to this mix, I was transported back to my childhood, when I'd tune in to local radio station KDAY when it was still 1580 on the AM dial. I'd eagerly await each day's top hit countdown which for a time nearly always included one of the countless "diversions" of Art of Noise's Beat Box, Egyptian Lover - Egypt Egypt, Newcleus - Jam On It, Cameo - She's Strange, and invariably, something from the LA Dream Team. KDAY was responsible for bringing the sounds chilly most of West Coast Hip Hop (Electro-hop in particular) from the other side of town to the ears of suburban, fat lace wearin', robot mimes like myself.

So, depending on your flava, break out the linoleum/carboard, don those Adidas tracksuits and Kangol hats, or dig out the rollerskates for the smoov sounds of:
Soul Electro

(Tracklisting after the jump)

After countless attempts by dr™ of trying to convince me to impart some of my vast musical knowledge by contributing to RobotSound™, I've finally decided to discuss one of my favorite dance music genres, New Beat. This was the sound created primarily by Belgian producers from '87 to '89 that forged a link between the EBM and Acid House of the mid-to-late 80s with the Rave/Hardcore Techno scene of the early 90's.

According to dance lore, New Beat was inadvertantly created when a deejay played an EBM 12", Flesh by A Split Second, at 33rpm instead of it's intended speed of 45rpm. Besides their slower tempo, New Beat hits were also characterized by their use of sexually explicit samples, especially those taken from NYC shock performance artist Karen Finley. After a couple years, New Beat morphed into the even shorter-lived Skizzo and Hard Beat sub-genres, which in turn were the precursors of early 90's Rave/Hardcore...

With that cursory introduction, I present:
Vodka Ed's Top 10 Jams of New Beat.

Warning: Some of the videos and/or corresponding audio may not be suitable for the workplace environment ;)

10. A Split Second - Flesh
Since this is the track that supposedly started the whole shebang, it's inclusion on the list is essential.

9. 101 - Move Your Body
One of the MANY projects of Praga Khan and friends. Though there were seemingly lots of different New Beat artists, in reality most output was created by two (or maybe three) groups of producers. This was 101's 2nd hit, after their anthemic Rock To The Beat, though I always thought this was the better track.

8. Moments of Ecstacy - You and Me
Another alias of Praga and crew. Like I said, they used LOTS of different names to make you THINK there was a whole scene.

7. Erotic Dissidents - Move Your Ass And Feel The Beat
This is the full 12" mix from the ultra-productive (one could even say robot-like) Morton-Sherman-Belucci, the New Beat equivalent of Hi-NRG's production whizzes Stock, Aitken & Waterman, who also brought us such classics as Shake Your Hips and Jack To The Air Of The Underwear.

6. Taste Of Sugar - Hmm Hmm
Some cheesy dancing here in another Morton-Sherman-Belucci production. Note the dancers are wearing proto-typical New Beat fashion. Many of these 12"s came with inserts where you too could mail order the clothes.

5. Space Opera - Mandate My Ass
This one gets included for the title alone. Some members of Space Opera included CJ Bolland, David Morley and R & S Records founder Renaat Vandepapeliere.

4. Technotronic Feat. Felly - Pump Up The Jam ("Live")
Easily the biggest and most instantly recognizable hit of the New Beat era. As everyone knows, Felly was just the blue-lipped lip-synching model, whose presence record execs felt would likely sell more records. In actuality, Ya Kid K was the uncredited singer/rapper. Here's the original video for a laugh (dig the fannypack).
I don't want a place to stay
Get your booty on the floor tonight
Make my day

3. Lords of Acid - I Sit On Acid
'88 + 303 = Sit on your face...I wanna sit on your face. Soulwax put out I Sit On Acid 2000, an electro remix a few years back.

2. Major Problem - Acid Queen
New Beat doesn't get much hotter than this. Perfect for your Robot S&M parties (don't ask me, dr™ asked me to include that line). Now I want you to get down on your hands and knees...

1. Miss Nicky Trax - Acid In The House
Don't ask me what pumping iron and women's wrestling have to do with this masterpiece of the genre. As part-time New Beat revivalist V/Vm so succinctly puts it, I Wanna Fuck Miss Nicky Trax.

Performing live in the US for the first time, Absolute Body Control stormed LA and NY this past weekend. This was a super-rare opportunity to see two originators of Minimal Wave, Dirk Ivens & Eric Van Woternghem (also of Dive, The Klinik, Monolith, Sonar, and Blok 57) definitively rock the house with body-controlling jams from throughout their lengthy 28-year existence. For the mainly 30-something crowd at Club M/R/X, ABC's long-overdue visit was fully welcomed as evidenced by the chant-along with Dirk on several songs. Despite getting hassled by the overzealous security, the RobotSound Krew enjoyed the vintage analogue goodness after downing some Duvels (in honor of the visiting Belgians of course) and ogling the local talent.

Here's a clip of ABC performing the Suicide-esque So Obvious in NYC on 4.4.08

Seeing that we're already in that time period, it's time to honor a small, yet noteworthy subset of early techno, namely Bleep. Centered around the Yorkshire towns of Leeds, Sheffield and Bradford in the UK, it briefly made it's name during '89 - '91, before the ravey piano anthems and hardcore breakbeats took the spotlight. We all know that Robots Love Bleeps (or anything Bleep-related for that matter), so it should surprise no one that this particular electronic dance music sub-genre deserves a post of its own.

Here's not one, but two mixes of Yorkshire Bleeps and Bass courtesy of Sheffield Bleep, an internet radio station broadcasting the very best electronic, dance & experimental music, non-stop, 24/7 - tune into their SHOUTcast stream here. Mix 1 mainly focuses on Bleep put out by Network Records while mix 2 consists of early WARP releases. Tracklistings and places to buy after the jump. Now you'll never accuse me of causing you bleep deprivation.

Network Bleep

Sheffield Bleep

Since I've been revisiting the golden years ['88 - '92] of House and Techno [plus a bit of Britpop and Trip Hop], it's only fitting that I include some visual evidence. Think of this post as a companion piece to last week's trip down nostalgia lane. I didn't include very much in the New Beat, Breakbeat or overtly Hardcore realms since that material can be the topic of several other posts. You'll definitely notice your Cheese Detector spike while watching some of this; keep in mind the era in which these clips were made. Nevertheless, I'm sure you'll agree that many of these tracks have rightfully earned their classic status and will forever be enshrined by old school ravers around the globe.

The Farm - Groovy Train
UHF - UHF [Yes, for a couple years there, Moby was cool.]
Utah Saints - What Can You Do For Me?
Renegade Soundwave - Biting My Nails
Fortran 5 - Heart On the Line
Baby Ford - Children of the Revolution
Njoi - Anthem [Watching Saffron lip-synch those samples just kills me.]
Bizarre Inc - Such A Feeling
808 State - In Yer Face
Beatmasters feat. Betty Boo - Hey DJ [Sorry, I had to include something by Ms. Boo, though I couldn't bring myself to post "Doin' the Do."]
The Beloved - Sun Rising
Electronic - Getting Away With It
Pet Shop Boys - So Hard
Blur - There's No Other Way
Lil' Louis - French Kiss [Easily the most bizarre video of the bunch. What the hell is this? I should probably include some kind of warning here.]
Massive Attack - Daydreaming